He had sufficient honor not to deliver him into Henry's hands,
as he was asked to do; but he set him adrift from his own court, bidding
him to seek his fortune elsewhere.
From France the young aspirant made his way into Flanders, and presented
himself at the court of the Duchess of Burgundy, with every appearance
of never having been there before. He sought her, he said, as his aunt.
The duchess received him with an air of doubt and suspicion. He was, she
acknowledged, the image of her dear departed brother, but more evidence
was needed. She questioned him, therefore, closely, before the members
of her court, making searching inquiries into his earlier life and
recollections. These he answered so satisfactorily that the duchess
declared herself transported with astonishment and joy, and vowed that
he was indeed her nephew, miraculously delivered from prison, brought
from death to life, wonderfully preserved by destiny for some great
fortune. She was not alone in this belief. All who heard his answers
agreed with her, many of them borne away by his grace of person and
manner and the fascination of his address. The duchess declared his
identity beyond doubt, did him honor as a born prince, gave him a
body-guard of thirty halberdiers, who were clad in a livery of murrey
and blue, and called him by the taking title of the "White Rose of
England.
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